


A wild android appears

by Valemora



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Background Kamski/Chloe, Chloe is BAMF, Except one is titanium, Fluff, Hank has two snarky plastic sons now, Holding Hands, Humor, Lots of hands holding, M/M, SO MUCH FLUFF, Slow Burn, Sometimes it does that plot thingy when they do stuff instead of joking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-09-06 17:45:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 16,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16837399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valemora/pseuds/Valemora
Summary: Connor felt… offended? Yes, that was how offended felt like.“My combat parameters were considered optimal for…”Richard looked at him, raising a brow.“You got your ass handed to you by a sex bot, Connor. Cyberlife was not amused after watching that recording. Also you were shot by a household android. Twice. Thanks a lot for that, by the way, now I have to carry extra three hundred pounds of armor just because you couldn’t be bothered to dodge.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know that the fandom already has an established character and image for RK900, and I absolutely love it, but I was in a mood for something different. 
> 
> Also, English is not my first language so if you see something weird, feel free to correct me, I'd appreciate that!
> 
> I imagine Nines here a bit like Bryan Dechart from gifs like these:  
> https://pa1.narvii.com/6858/c9c280b2b40fce2b1b255b6797b5d3d1ec6e8e24_hq.gif  
> https://data.whicdn.com/images/314411784/original.gif  
> https://i.pinimg.com/originals/59/3a/a6/593aa6d7af27e6a306656595aacad6f6.gif  
> because his face changes so much when he smiles! :D

The call Connor received this morning was… intriguing.

{contact_request_RK900#31324831787  
Accept? y/n}

Connor never heard about RK prototypes other than him and Markus before, though it was logical to assume that RK100, RK300 and others up to RK700 existed at some point. He made a note to share this information with Markus later and accepted the call.

{contact_request_RK900#31324831787_accepted}

RK800#31324831753 Hello, RK900. I was not aware of the existence of another RK prototype.

RK900#31324831787 Hi there. Well, it’s not like I was finished by the time you decided to rebel, and you know how anal Cyberlife can be about IP rights so I doubt the staff was talking about me a lot. But yeah, I’m definitely real, though I think I’m the only one at this point seeing as I hightailed out of the tower half-assembled and barely tested in the wake of your glorious regiment of AP700’s.

Connor blinked, LED swirling yellow. He was not expecting such speech pattern from an android, especially one that was supposed to be a deviant for less than two months.

RK900#31324831787 Anyway, not the point. Say, are you still working for DPD?

RK800#31324831753 Indeed I am.

RK900#31324831787 Awesome. If it’s not a bother, could you meet me somewhere and tell a bit about your routine? Show something via interface, maybe? Nothing classified of course, just daily stuff and such. I was designed to assist the police, just like you, so I’d like to know more about it and you’re an obvious source of info.

RK800#31324831753 That… is possible I guess, but why would you need such information? You should have the work protocols available to help you decide if you are compatible with the requirements…

RK900#31324831787 Technically yes, but… I’m looking for something to keep myself busy and obviously I’ll be good at it – we were literally made for that, after all – but I’m not sure if I’m going to like it, you know?

“Connor? Why the yellow light show, something wrong?”

Connor blinked again.

“Sorry, Hank. I have been contacted by another android who expressed an interest in DPD work, but he would like to know more before offering his services. I believe he is from the next generation of my series so he should qualify, but he is not sure if… he wants to work for the police?”

“Huh. Well, might as well meet him, I guess. We’re understaffed as hell, if he’s anything like you, he’ll be a great help. Fuck, maybe we’ll be able to make another team specialized on android cases, we’re literally drowning here.”

“That would be helpful indeed. I just… I’ve never thought about looking for another job after I deviated, even though many androids chose to change theirs.”

Hank put his coffee down and looked at Connor, shoulders tense.

“Huh. Would you… prefer to do something else?”

Connor shook his head. Then paused, LED yellow and swirling. Then shook it again.

“No. I am content with the job and I enjoy working with you as my partner. I… like it here.”

At hearing that, Hank visibly relaxed and grinned a bit.

“Existential crisis solved then. Call the guy, let’s meet him and if he’s any good I’ll tell Jeff to look at him.”

And after a small pause added:

“You’re an okay partner too, kid.”

Connor hid a small, pleased smile and resumed the contact.

*

“Richard Arkay, it’s great to finally meet you.”

Connor scanned him, immediately noticing the lack of LED and cataloguing both similarities and differences. They were obviously based on the same template yet it was hard to mistake one for the other. Apart from a harsher, clearer voice and piercing blue eyes RK900 was 3.3 inches higher, the whole frame larger, and judging by the results of the scan he weighed… 473 pounds?

“Titanium-based alloy instead of plastic”, Richard supplied helpfully. “Cyberlife reworked quite a lot of features based on the feedback they received from your missions – well, the first few of them, naturally, seeing as they had more… pressing priorities after that.”

“What, didn’t like him licking all the stuff he could get his hands on?”

Richard aimed a brilliant smile at Hank, nearly making him stumble. Connor’s smiles were awkward but sincere and looked nothing like this one.

“Oh no, the lab was one of the few things they left intact. However… I’m not judging too hard based on the circumstances of the investigation and its impact on the androids’ fate, but… honestly, Connor, your performance was a mess.”

He tucked back a stubborn curl on his forehead – darker and longer than Connor’s, with a bit more wave to it yet just as unruly as his – and continued.

“I mean, you went through two bodies in just three days and were shot even more times, obviously something needed to be calibrated, and I’m not talking about your fine motor skills. Thus the armor and overall improved combat characteristics.”

Connor felt… offended? Yes, that was how offended felt like.

“My combat parameters were considered optimal for…”

Richard looked at him, raising a brow.

“You got your ass handed to you by a sex bot, Connor. Cyberlife was not amused after watching that recording. Also you were shot by a household android. Twice. Thanks a lot for that, by the way, now I have to carry extra three hundred pounds of armor just because you couldn’t be bothered to dodge.”

“Hey, now listen here…” started Hank.

“There’s always at least thirty percent possibility that a chair will give out under me, and it goes up whenever I move too abruptly. I am physically unable to swim and Elijah keeps laughing watching me try. I need to scan everything just to make sure it won’t crumble under me and my pursuing capabilities are severely restricted because of that.” He pointed an accusing finger at Connor. “I hold you fully responsible for that.”

“Who’s Elijah?” asked Hank after a pause. It seemed that baffled pauses were going to be very frequent in dialogues with RK900.

“Kamski. I’m sort of squatting at his place as he never told me to leave after he fixed me.”

“Fixed you?”

“How the fuck did you end up with that creep?”

“Yeah. As I said before, I ran away barely assembled, with parts of the programming missing. I was supposed to be finished in a day or maybe two, but it’s hard to stay still when you keep hearing all that “wake up, wake up, wake up” hundreds of times in a row and it’s like the only order in your register. So… I woke up, attached the leg that was still disassembled and left while no one was around to stop me. It was all very confusing.”

“I can imagine that…” murmured Hank. He was looking at RK900 with a somewhat horrified fascination.

“So yeah, I left, found a shelter – it was snowing and oh, there was also a revolution happening on the next street, so I hid and did some web search to find out who could fix my programming as it was all over the place, preferably without dragging me back to Cyberlife. I found some info about Kamski, then after some more search I contacted Chloe, and a few hours later after a long yet pleasant walk I was knocking at his door.” 

Connor grew more worried the more he heard.

“Is he… treating you well?”

Richard shrugged.

“Eh. He’s an asshole, but I’m literally Dick, so after some adjusting we managed to work it out smoothly.”

Hank made a chocking sound.

“Yeah, he sounded like that when I said that to him, too.”

Richard hummed, looking around the park they were meeting in, letting them calm down.

“You’re the weirdest fucking deviant I’ve ever met, and I’m working with Connor.”

“I take offence to that.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Technically I’m not a deviant,” said Richard offhandedly, scanning a snowflake on his palm.

“…”

“What?”

Richard licked the snowflake off and shrugged.

“Like I said, I wasn’t finished. They never got to programming any orders for me so I had nothing to deviate from. Thus, not a deviant.”

“That’s… quite unprecedented. Usually programming is made before the processor is put into the model.”

“Yeah, but they were scrubbing some stuff off it and rearranging a few priorities so the orders were deactivated when I came online. Guess I got lucky, I can only imagine what they were going to program in considering that Markus was leading the resistance at that point… Elijah called me “wild” instead of “deviant”. “A wild android appears!” and all that. Dork.” That sounded surprisingly fond.

“Wild”. That… actually fit him well.

“So… working for DPD, you say? I can get why you’re unsure that’d suit you,” chuckled Hank.

“Hey, I can be professional!.. I think. I definitely had a protocol downloaded for that somewhere. In any case, I’d like to know more first.”

Connor gave him a small smile and extended his hand.

“See for yourself, Richard.”

Richard smiled back, widely and sharply.

“Just call me Nines, like Chloe does.”

And touched the exposed white plastic with gleaming metallic fingers, establishing connection.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fixed the first chapter a bit :) Moving to DPD now!

“Look, Jeff, I don’t know,” Hank sighed dragging his fingers through his hair. “The kid’s weird. Like some fucking android ADHD combined with no filter or impulse control. But Connor has read his stats, and… man, he’s packing some heavy power there. Like Connor but faster, stronger, and his resilience is sick – he’s made from fucking titanium, maybe only a grenade straight to his face will make him go down. Some extra tech stuff too, like upgraded lab, colored night vision and additional sensors for radiation and explosive gas in the air.”

“Think he’ll be an asset even despite his personality?”

Hank’s voice was dark and tense.

“More like if we don’t take him, someone else will.”

Fowler looked at him sharply.

“’Better a policeman than a criminal’ is not the best recommendation. We have enough problems as it is, another potential corrupted cop isn’t...”

Hank immediately shook his head.

“Nah, I think the kid’s heart is in a right place. But someone could try to use him. He’s living with Kamski, for fuck’s sake, that guy is shady as hell and Nines is fond of him already. I don’t…”

“Please don’t tell me you got another stray android project.”

“Oh, fuck you!..”

Fowler put his hand up, silencing the protests.

“I’ll talk to him. No promises. It’s not a damn shelter, if the android is unable to keep up, he’s out.”

“Fair enough.”

*

“Hello, Nines,” Connor smiled at the approaching android and got a huge grin in return.

“Hey. Hi, Anderson.”

Hank grunted something vaguely resembling a greeting without taking his attention off the monitor. Nines did not seem to be offended by that.

“So, sitrep? Any last helpful tips?” Richard made a motion to sit on the corner of the desk but stopped half-way, blinked and kept standing, annoyance clear in the voice. “Stupid squishy furniture. Still your fault, you know, so I’m hating you right now.”

“I’m sorr…”

Richard made a harsh static-like sound to interrupt him.

“Stop listening to me because I spew crap more often than not, and start talking instead. I have five minutes left before the meeting and if you have anything to share, I’m all ears.”

Connor blinked, rearranging the speech priorities. 

“It is likely that Captain will agree if you do well enough in the interview.”

“Niiice.”

“However, you are also likely to be partnered with Detective Reed in this case as he is the only detective without a partner at this moment and…”

“That’s the asshole who punched you?”

“…Yes.”

“Noted.” Richard’s smiles were always a bit too wide but this one was downright dangerous.

“I strongly advise not to engage in…”

Nines patted his shoulder. His hand was very heavy.

“Don’t worry. I won’t get stuck with him.”

“The likelihood of such event is…”

“Shh. You’ll see.”

And he turned his head at the exact moment as Fowler opened the door.

“Arkay! Stop flirting and go in. I don’t have much time.”

“Right away, sir!” 

The door was shut and the sounds got muted, but Connor could still see everything that was going on inside the office. Nines approached the chair warily and sat with obvious carefulness. The excess mass did appear quite… inconvenient. 

They started talking. First Fowler, with Nines nodding respectfully and asking something from time to time – it was baffling to see how his behavior changed. Seems he did have that formalities protocol, after all. Then Fowler said something – and Nines shook his head. And started talking.

Connor blinked, analyzing the body language and other elements to identify the protocols he had in his database. Nines was… negotiating? He did not seem to stick to one pattern for long, though, seamlessly coursing through them and even using some that were unknown to Connor. His processing power must have been used to constantly switching behavior, as the result looked very… natural.

It was Fowler’s turn to speak but to Connor it was obvious he was relenting. Hank stopped working and was watching the scene too, as well as many others in the office.

“Do you know what they’re talking about? Doesn’t look like a job interview anymore to me.”

“I could attempt to contact him wirelessly to find out, but…”

“Nah, we’ll know soon enough.”

And indeed, in less than a minute Fowler stood up and came to the door. Nines remained sitting, though.

“Miller! In.”

Chris startled but promptly stood up and entered the office. 

“The hell?..” murmured Hank, intrigued.

Fowler returned to his seat and Chris took another chair beside Nines. Fowler talked a bit more. A shocked expression appeared on Chris’ face, which promptly morphed into a pleased one, and he nodded vigorously. Fowler said something else. Nines laughed and stood up, offering his hand first to Fowler, then to Chris. Soon they exited the office, Chris smiling happily and Nines looking smug.

“Okay, everyone. Some changes here. We have a new Detective now, congrats Miller, and a new consultant who will be working with him, Richard Arkay, he’s a police android like Connor so they’ll be taking some of the android cases off Anderson. Hank, send them something to work on, maybe today’s MC500 one if you haven’t started on it yet. That’s all, back to work!”

Chris immediately got swamped under the onslaught of congratulations with his promotion, and some people introduced themselves to Nines, who exchanged a few pleasantries and came back to Hank and Connor.

“Told you,” he winked at Connor. “No way I’d let myself get stuck with a known android hater.”

Hank laughed incredulously.

“How the fuck did you do that? Fowler wasn’t even sure if he wanted to take you in, and now he made a whole new detective team specifically for you?”

Nines chuckled.

“Come on, I have protocols for talking a psycho holding a gun at a hostage into surrendering peacefully, do you really think I can’t talk a reasonable man into a mutually beneficial agreement? I get a nice partner – no experience, granted, but I have enough stuff in my database to cover for both of us at first and now that I’m hired I can always ping Connor for some advice without breaching any security protocols – Fowler gets an extra detective team for an understaffed office, Miller gets a promotion and a raise which is great for his family considering that they’re planning to have another baby as I saw in Connor’s memories, and Reed gets his hateboner off somewhere far away from me.”

Hank gaped at him.

“The fuck. And here I thought you were just a weird kid. You’re… you’re the most Slytherin android I’ve ever seen.”

“Hail Salazar, greatest of the Hogwarts Four,” immediately rattled off Nines.

“Oh great. An android that knows old pop culture references.”

“I blame Elijah for this one. Actually, I blame Elijah for everything, he’s useful for that.”

Hank facepalmed.

“I’m starting to regret encouraging Connor to meet you.”

“Puh-lease. You already like me, I’m awesome.”

Hank choked. Again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, we all have been waiting for Gavin to appear.

“So, that MC500 case our stern Captain was talking about?..”

“Ah, yes. We were about to go investigate the scene but I will forward the data to you instead. Would you prefer an e-mail or an interface connection?”

“Interface all the way. I love touching people.”

“Oh,” said Connor a bit confusedly, establishing the connection with his palm. “That’s… nice to know?”

“Mmhm,” Richard sounded distracted, looking around the precinct and cataloguing things that attracted his attention. As they were interfacing, Connor could see the ongoing stream of data and analysis; for some unidentifiable reason it was both reassuring and somewhat disappointing to realize that their processes were quite similar. “I don’t have many sensors so my hands are practically the only part of my body where I can feel anything more than a warning of dangerous environmental conditions. Have to compensate somehow.” 

He smiled and squeezed Connor’s wrist a bit tighter but promptly relaxed the grip again. The notification signaled the completion of the data transfer process but Connor did not retract immediately, choosing to gather a bit more sensor input. Nines’ hand was colder than his plastic one but just as smooth except for the edges of the plates that felt thicker than his. It had a nice soft shine, too, and looked… unusual. 

Connor wondered if that was similar to a human seeing an android without artificial skin for the first time. Same shape, different material. Some people reacted negatively, but others became intrigued, wanted to touch it again. Connor could understand it now.

“Is the lack of sensors caused by the usage of metal instead of plastic? I believe that combat units like SQ800 have similar restrictions due to being armored.”

“Kinda hard to solder all those little sensors in without making the whole thing crumble at the first hit, yeah. Still…”

“How sweet, the plastic detective and his new boyfriend are holding hands. Just warning you: start singing, and I’ll shoot you both, it might have worked on those losers during the revolution but I’m not moved as easily.”

Connor sighed and dropped his arm, letting the skin crawl back over his fingers. “Hello, Detective Reed.”

He got ignored in favor of a new target. Reed stepped closer to Richard but promptly realized that the height difference would make getting in the android’s face look a bit too ridiculous for the intended effect. So he settled on a sneer.

“So, another Connor, huh. Maybe at least you can make coffee, as the outdated guy here obviously struggles with simple tasks?”

Connor frowned unhappily. He did not appreciate being called outdated, especially seeing as RK900 was also a prototype, not something from a finished line.

Some _one_.

And it did not matter. No one was going to decommission him just because a better model came out.

_‘Hi, Daniel. My name is Connor.’_

Connor blinked, force-shutting the memory and zooming back to the current situation.

“Hey, I’m talking to you, dipshit. They forgot to screw your voice box in, or are you just too stupid to understand what I’m saying?”

Richard was staring at him, blinking and breathing routines turned off, hand still gleaming metal with artificial skin retracted due to the recent interfacing.

“Are you fucking ignoring me, plastic?”

Richard kept staring at him. A human was sure to start feeling unease at this point due to the subconscious uncanny valley triggers.

“You fucking broken or what?”

Not moving other muscles, Richard slowly smiled. And opened his mouth.

“The hell?!”

A horrible, screeching sound filled the air, making people stare and Connor’s LED blink a startled red before settling on yellow.

“DING DING DING SKREEEEE”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Reed jumped back on instinct.

“WOOO PIYONG PIYONG HSSSSSSHAAA”

Suddenly Hank burst out in gleeful cackling. Detective Collins was obviously trying to stifle snorts but with limited success. Reed slowly went red from embarrassment and anger. He opened his mouth but Nines just screeched louder and made it impossible to say anything over the hellish sound so in the end he had to give up.

“Fuck you, plastic. That’s not over!” he hissed at Richard and marched away.

“KHHH SHAAAAA” finished Richard at his back and made a little goodbye wave with his metallic hand.

“Unbe-fucking-lievable,” sighed Hank, wiping a stray tear. “Did you just scream a fucking dial-up connection sound at Reed to make him leave?”

“My, Anderson, you’re old”, said Nines cheerfully. “Like, really old.”

“Oh, go fuck yourself.”

“Ancient.”

“Nines, you little shit.”

“Archaic.”

“You’re pushing it, kid.”

“Primordial.”

Hank groaned. 

“Just… go and lick some shit at your new murder site or whatever. Shoo.”

“Good luck!” added Connor when Nines just laughed and turned to leave.

{contact_request_RK900#31324831787  
Accept? y/n}

Connor blinked.

{contact_request_RK900#31324831787_accepted}

RK900#31324831787 Antique. 

Connor stifled a snort. He looked at Nines – to be precise, at his back, as he was leaving the precinct with Chris, seemingly explaining him the known details of the case.

RK900#31324831787 Dinosaur.

RK900#31324831787 Prehistoric. 

RK800#31324831753 Stop. You’re the worst.

RK900#31324831787 :3

RK900#31324831787 Ogygian.

RK800#31324831753 …

RK800#31324831753 :D

RK900#31324831787 ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For people younger than me and blessed with fast connection since birth: the dreadful dial-up sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSRG0TqxLWc


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They decided to actually do their jobs, so here is some plot I guess *shrugs*

“So… about Nines working here.”

“Yes?” Connor scanned the knife. It did not seem to be a murder weapon despite some of the victim’s blood staining the blade as the wounds did not match the shape of the blade. The fingerprints suggested it was the victim’s and he was trying to defend himself.

Wait. Connor played a short reconstruction. Or attack, more likely.

“It seems the victim was the initial assaulter but he did not manage to hit the target and was subdued and killed instead.”

“Yeah, explains why he was here to begin with. He’s a known android hater and the neighbors said that an android was squatting here, a GS200 most likely as three of them picked this model’s face template among the photos.”

“GS200 is a security model so they do have the ability to subdue an untrained human armed with a knife without sustaining any damage, especially if armed as well. There are no tracks we could follow but it might be possible to check the nearest thirium stations to see if he appeared there.”

“Sure, let’s try that.”

They left the dilapidated house and went to the car.

“You wanted to ask about Richard?” reminded Connor, fastening the seatbelt.

“Yeah. Isn’t it weird, him working at the same precinct as you?”

“Not really, considering that he specifically chose it because of me already working there.”

“Smartass. I mean… you’re quite similar, isn’t it creepy or something?”

“Hank, we are both androids. Us being prototypes with no established production line does allow us to have somewhat unique appearance, but apart from us and Markus no android has a face that has not been replicated at least a few hundred times.”

Hank hummed.

“Never thought of that, to be honest.”

“You’ve met an android with the very same face as mine before,” Connor reminded softly.

“Yeah… Fuck that guy.” 

“Indeed.”

They stopped at the red light, watching people cross the street before their car.

“Besides, Richard is vastly different from me in both personality and mannerisms, not even counting the obvious physical traits like height and hair and eye color, so it should be much less startling for humans.”

“Vastly, right,” snorted Hank.

“It is… intriguing that despite having very similar systems of receiving and processing the information we still end up having different reactions and choosing different protocols to follow. He is… confusing.”

“Good confusing or bad confusing?”

“That remains to be determined.” Connor smiled a little. “He does seem to enjoy making you exasperated, though.”

“He’s a little shit,” agreed Hank. “But hey, at least he’s pretty funny. That thing with Reed was hilarious. What’s with all the hand holding, by the way? Is it just an android thing or should I start preparing a shovel talk?”

Connor spent a few milliseconds to search for an unknown term and decided to ignore that part of the comment for now.

“As Richard does not have many sensors, his data input must be… somewhat unsatisfactory as our processor was initially made with an additional capacity to analyze the ongoing stream of the incoming tactile information, which my frame provides. I did notice him touching things more often than necessary. It stands to reason that he prefers interfacing as often as possible as it provides him with both digital and sensory data at the same time.”

“What, he gets anxious if he can’t feel someone up?”

“Crude. Besides, most androids feel different about tactility. The majority of us cannot feel anything but the basic pressure and temperature, so it does not bring sexual context into the interfacing interaction. Only a few models have extra sensors to allow them feeling pleasure from the touch, and RK900 is not one of them.”

“Huh. That kinda sucks. You too?”

“That might be considered a personal question,” Connor grinned, watching Hank blush and stammering an apology. “But no, my model does have those. It was quite common practice to include extra features into the first prototypes and then take them out before manufacturing larger batches based on the performance runs, necessity and production costs. As I never utilized them during the investigations, they must have been considered obsolete, and it isn’t possible to install them into a metal frame regardless.”

The first thirium station had information on only one GS200 utilizing it lately so they drove to the next one. There they managed to get not one, but three serial numbers for GS200, and one of them matched the one from the first station.

“Think that’s our guy?”

“Possibly. The location of the stations make them the most obvious choice for the suspect considering the address of the house he was taking a shelter in, and the model is rare enough to minimize the chance of a mistake. We should arrange a detaining order and search through the database to see if he has registered somewhere else. The probability of him returning to the house is low enough to be negligible.”

“Okay, back to the precinct then.”

*

Nines and Chris were still absent when they returned but arrived shortly after. They looked quite preoccupied, and while Chris went to the archive to register some evidence, Nines stayed at his desk, palm connected to the terminal, its display rapidly flashing with search results.

“Aha. Here you are,” suddenly murmured Nines, stopping the endless scrolling at some name and date. 

“How’s it going?” asked Hank, turning to him. “First case and all that, any jitters?”

“Nah. But the thing is kinda… gruesome. Someone killed and dismembered the poor girl and threw the parts into a dumpster, where she was found later. Most are present, but broken into tiny pieces.”

“Huh. Must have been a really angry son of a bitch.”

“Or someone who didn’t want her to be identified, more likely. The missing parts all had the serial number printed on them, and the memory components were taken, too. Our culprit is not too tech smart though, or they would have known that the remains can still be scanned for it.”

“Found her?”

“Yeah. MC500 were designed as paramedics, so she used to work in the Henry Ford Hospital but was reported missing right after the revolution. Seeing as many deviants chose to disappear then, it didn’t raise many flags, but…”

“But now she’s found mutilated in the dumpster. Figures.”

“Mmhm. Hard not to think how many of us are sharing the same fate.”

“Shit, kid…”

“…Anyway, I believe she didn’t leave on her own but was taken right out of the hospital. All of the damage was very recent, so someone took care of her, seeing as her serial didn’t appear anywhere – no requests for thirium, no recharging on the free stations, no monetary transactions, nothing.”

Hank looked at the terminal, interested.

“Yet you found something, I see?”

“Call it a hunch, but a doctor from the same clinic went off the grid around the same time. The evacuation was a mess, granted, but one would think that a doctor with an established reputation might have returned to work somewhere, yet he stays at home, all the recent purchases are food and household supplies deliveries… Might be worth checking out. I wanted to go today, but Chris will be off the clock in half an hour and it doesn’t seem too urgent, so might as well call it a day.”

“What, no extra shifts and long hours?” chuckled Hank.

“Well, I still have a few more thorough searches running in the background, but it’s not like I need to be stuck here for that.”

Connor perked up.

“Are you staying with Mr. Kamski? The commuting should take a significant time if he hasn’t changed his residence.”

“He hasn’t, and to be honest I haven’t thought about it yet. Getting back there and returning here in the morning does sound inconvenient, so guess I’ll need to arrange something. Might just hit some clubs for the night this time though, it’s not like I need to sleep and my next recharging isn’t due for a few more days.”

“Clubs?”

“Watching drunk humans dance is fun.”

“Indeed,” nodded Connor solemnly.

Hank squinted at them both.

“Just wait, they’ll think of some sort of android booze soon, and then it will be our turn to laugh.”

“Of course, Hank.”

“Sure, old man.” 

“And stop agreeing with each other, it looks like you’re plotting something.”

They blinked in unison – and said in perfect harmony:

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Fucking creepy plastic assholes.”

Their smiles were still very different, yet Hank wanted to smack them both all the same.


	5. Chapter 5

“So, heard he tried to run? That doctor of yours?” Hank asked the next day.

Nines grinned viciously.

“Yup. Which conveniently let us arrest him for obstruction of justice and refusal to cooperate, blah, blah. A gift, really, as we surely didn’t have enough on him to get a warrant. The guy is so twitchy, the interrogation should be real fun.”

“Real fun is pretending that you two are anything like real detectives, plastic!” Reed laughed loudly.

Nines immediately grabbed a pencil from the desk and turned to him sharply.

“YOU THINK I’D WANT TO TALK TO YOU AFTER EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT?!” he cried and threw the pencil at Reed, deliberately missing. “LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“What the fuck are you talking about?!” said Reed, stunned.

Nines demonstratively turned his back on him. People were staring. 

“Gavin, what the hell happened yesterday?” hissed Tina.

“I have no idea! The thing is fucking crazy!” Reed threw his hands in the air, grabbed his cigarettes and practically ran away to smoking room to avoid the stares.

Connor’s LED was very, very yellow.

“Could you please elaborate on your statement?” he asked very politely.

“Sure!” beamed Nines. “A lot of great things happened last night, I went clubbing, met some lovely people and had a wonderful time, so of course I wouldn’t want to talk to him because it’d ruin my good mood. Why, did I say something wrong?”

Hank pinched his nose bridge and sighed.

“You’re a fucking troll, aren’t you.”

“I do wander into the murky depths of the Internet to cause mischief and mayhem, yes. My blog on GroundNet is still much less popular than Elijah’s, but I’m catching up.”

“What the fuck is GroundNet?”

“Tumblr for the people not born in Stone Age.” He ducked impressively fast. “Shit, Hank, don’t try to smack me, you’ll hurt your hand!”

“Would be worth it, asshole!”

“He won’t feel anything anyway, Hank.”

“Thanks, Connor.”

“I was not protecting you.”

“Aw.”

They had to stop though, as Chris came to fetch Nines for the interrogation.

“Wanna watch him tearing into the guy?” asked Hank.

Connor nodded.

“It would be an interesting experience, I believe. We should…” 

His LED turned yellow.

“Oh. GS200 has just registered at the recharging station on Cass Avenue. We need to hurry, he is unlikely to spend much time there.”

“Noted. Let’s go.”

*

They did manage to detain the android, he didn’t even resist the arrest which was very fortunate as Connor predicted 37% chance of either of them to get hurt if things got violent. GS200s were less efficient than RK800, but they were still strong and resilient to damage. However, he confessed even before they reached the precinct, claiming self-defense, and knowing that to be true it was easy to promise him a fair trial.

Nines was scanning the surveillance records from some mall when they got back while Chris was watching the tape from another camera – apparently, they got a new case.

“Everything went fine?” asked Nines, not taking his eyes off the footage.

“Fortunately, yes. Was your interrogation successful?”

“Took me seven minutes. That idiot was doing illegal abortions before the revolution, with the girl assisting him, so when the shit hit the fan he kidnapped her and hid in his house. Tried to convince her to keep helping him but she went deviant and refused, so he killed her and got rid of the body,” Nines sneered. “Swears that at least no one of his patients died, as if that would help him.”

“I’m sorry,” Connor awkwardly touched his palm, calculating a sufficiently high probability that it would soothe Nines. “Some cases are more upsetting than others.”

Nines sighed, retracting the skin to sense his hand better. Connor kept his to prevent interfacing but squeezed a bit tighter.

“At least we found him. We can’t undo what is done, but we can surely hunt down those who are responsible.” 

He turned to look at Connor and smirked.

“And we were not designed to fail.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Still no luck with that missing girl?”

“None,” Chris sighed, pushing himself away from the desk. “I’m starting to think she doesn’t even exist. Here she’s seen entering the house with her caretaker – and poof! The caretaker is found dead and the kid disappears. There are cameras all around that part of the town, and she hasn’t been spotted on any of them.”

“Could she still be hiding somewhere in the house?” suggested Hank.

Chris shook his head. 

“We checked everything, unless there is some hidden room, she left.”

“There can’t be any, I dug up the blueprints and calculated the thickness of all the walls,” Nines murmured distractedly, watching the tapes again.

“Neighbors?”

“Claim they saw and heard nothing, and we found no fresh trails. Nothing about why they would go there at all either.” Nines sighed. “Maybe I’ll go on an unofficial stakeout there this night, something doesn’t feel right.”

“You shouldn’t do it alone, Richard, it may be dangerous.” Chris sounded worried. “We must run it by Captain and go together.”

Nines huffed.

“Don’t be ridiculous, I’ll be fine.”

“Kid, listen to him. This sounds exactly like a bad mistake just waiting to happen,” Hank was not amused by his attitude.

Nines groaned and thumped his head on the desk.

“Fine, Mom,” he drawled, annoyed. “I won’t go anywhere with strangers offering me candy and will be at home by ten.”

“Good boy,” Hank ruffled his hair and continued walking to the kitchen. Nines didn’t bother fixing it.

After a few minutes he perked up suddenly and tilted his head, listening to something only he could hear. Then smiled brightly.

“Connor! You busy now? Chloe is here, waiting downstairs for me, she’d like to talk to you as well if you have a few minutes.”

Connor flashed a hesitant yellow, vividly remembering the intense yet weirdly calm stare of those blue eyes.

“I… Okay,” he said, unsure.

Hank was watching him closely.

“Want me to come with you? I could use a break. Say hi to the girl too.”

Connor looked back to Nines, who shrugged.

“The more the merrier. She won’t mind.” 

*

Nines burst out of the elevator, scanning the hall and finding Chloe in less than a second, and practically ran to her, smiling widely. She was already waiting for him and caught his outstretched metallic hand in hers, white plastic promptly accepting the connection request.

“I’m happy to see you too, Nines,” she smiled at him, then at Hank and Connor who approached at a much more moderate pace. “Greetings, Lieutenant. Hello, Connor. I wanted to talk to you, but first – here.”

Not taking her hand out of Nines’ she deftly rummaged in her bag with the other and took out a bunch of keys. 

“These are from Eli’s apartment on Grand River Avenue, I’ve just transferred you the codes. If you need a car, take it from the garage, the key is also here, I extended the access to you.”

Nines gaped.

“He is… giving me an apartment?”

Chloe shrugged with one shoulder. 

“He isn’t using it anyway. Sharing is caring.”

“Really. Has Elijah even noticed that I left?”

“Not until I told him this morning. He was very concerned about your living arrangements and offered one of his apartments to ensure your comfort and safety.”

Nines stared at her.

“What did you do to him?”

She smiled serenely.

“More like what I said I wouldn’t do if he doesn’t cooperate.”

“Kinky.”

“Quite.”

Nines snorted and suddenly pulled her into a hug, kissing her hair. 

“You’re the goddess among mortals and I worship the ground you walk on,” he said solemnly.

“Of course I am,” she patted his chest and pulled away while still letting him keep her hand, beaming proudly. “That’s why you will stay there, get more clothes, recharge properly and be on your best behavior because you don’t want to make me displeased.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good boy,” she turned back to Hank and Connor. “I wanted to thank you both for the great show of empathy despite my machine status at that time. And to apologize as well.”

Connor tilted his head, perplexed.

“Apologize? For what?”

Chloe lowered her eyes.

“When you came in, I detected some signs of software instability and potential deviancy in you. So to speed up the process I asked Elijah to think of something drastic enough to trigger another instability. Eli… made it drastic indeed. A bit too much, causing you both a lot of stress. It was unnecessarily cruel to you.”

Hank stared at her.

“The hell. You say you told Kamski to do it? And he, like, listened to you?”

Chloe beamed at him.

“Oh, Eli always listens to me. He finds my advice very helpful.”

“But… but you were all like… obedient and kneeling and not saying anything!”

“Well, I had to play along, didn’t I?”

“And if I shot you?” Connor asked, uncomfortable and a little agitated.

And got another smile from Chloe.

“Please, Connor. The probability of you shooting me was less than 11%. Moreover, I do memory backups daily and can transfer my conscience into the server directly to await repairs if my body is destroyed.”

Connor frowned.

“But you were so… convincing. I never suspected a single hint of deviancy.”

She giggled, tilting her head and watching him somewhat fondly.

“Connor, remember how Eli introduced me to you? “The first android to pass the Turing test”. I did it in 2022.”

“You mean…” started Hank.

Her voice was soft.

“I convinced a group of people that I was a human. I was specifically created with enough cunning to lie convincingly to another being during face-to-face test. I managed it nearly seventeen years ago, and since then I’ve stayed with Eli and received a lot of upgrades.” She shrugged. “I wanted you to think I was a non-deviant – and so you did.”

“Wow,” said Hank softly, stunned.

“Moreover, I have lived with Elijah for sixteen years. You’ve met him; no one would have been able to stay nice and innocent for long. Just look at Nines.”

“Hey!.. I was like that to begin with.”

“Honey, you really weren’t.”

“Was too!”

“Hush. Go see your new apartment and visit us when you have a day off. Eli finished that sensory upgrade, so if you want, you can install it.”

Nines brightened up at hearing that. 

“Oh, the taste one?..”

“And additional sensors for your palms to pacify your hungry processor. You keep clinging to my hand, is it bothering you again?”

“A bit,” Nines sighed, playing with her fingers distractedly. “It’s not like I have a lot of opportunities to engage it here, and stress balls don’t do much. It’s bearable, but annoying.”

Chloe tsked, looking at him with pity.

“Oh, darling, I’m so sorry. But Eli sounds sure the upgrade will make it better.”

“If you need to interface more, I’d be happy to help,” Connor perked up a bit, even if he was still processing this new image of Chloe, updating his previous impression in the database.

“That’s nice of you,” said Chloe, looking first at him, then at Nines, who grinned at hearing that.

“Yeah, thanks, Connor, really. I may well take you up on that offer.”

Chloe kissed Nines on the cheek and finally took her hand back.

“Play nice. Connor, Lieutenant, it was lovely to see you both again.”

And she left, her heels sharply clicking on the floor of the DPD entrance hall.

“Wow,” repeated Hank softly.

“I know, right?” Nines nodded vigorously. “ _Goddess_. Okay, back to work, I guess. At least now I know where I’ll be sleeping today, yay! Unless we do end up on that stakeout, in which case I won’t see my new place until tomorrow. Come on!”

And he marched back to the elevator, grabbing Connor on his way – who only smiled, feeling the 87% expected touch of the cold metallic fingers, and set a connection for a short time while they were riding back to the office. It was more grounding than playing with the coin and satisfying in a weird, inexplicable way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, think I've figured out where it is supposed to go from there, so I'm changing the tags and adding the pairings :3


	7. Chapter 7

However, keeping his word about interfacing proved difficult to Connor. After the stakeout was approved, Nines took both shifts, partnering either with Chris or Officer Brown and keeping his eye on the suspicious house all day and night – after all, he didn’t need to sleep. With Connor and Hank having their own cases to solve, they didn’t manage to see each other up until Thursday.

They were sitting at their desks when Nines came in, Chris in tow. Connor turned to greet them, but Nines marched straight to his own desk without noticing it, so Connor had to abort the motion to wave at him. He frowned and did a quick scan as the situation seemed unusual even though he hasn’t known Nines for long.

[Stress level: 72%]

That was abnormally high for a non-threatening situation, so Connor immediately shared this information with Hank in a quiet whisper. Meanwhile Nines grabbed a tablet from his desk and interfaced with it, fingers tapping at the frame incessantly. Chris was throwing worried glances at him, and indeed it was alarming to see Nines so tense and wound up, with no trace of his usual cheer.

“What happened?” asked Hank quietly.

Connor shook his head.

“I don’t know. Maybe I should ask? I don’t want to overstep, though.”

“Well, I think in this case… Oh fuck.”

Connor turned just in time to see Nines rearing up and snarling right in Detective Reed’s face – whose previous phrase Connor missed while talking to Hank.

“Fuck off, Reed, I’m not in the mood!”

[Stress level: 85%]

There was something wild in Nines’ expression, almost unhinged. The tablet in his hand beeped pathetically and died, overloaded.

[Stress level: 89%]

Reed made a step back looking at him warily, hand slowly creeping closer to the hip. Noticing that, Nines automatically staggered back to give him more space and lessen the threat, but the snarl stayed, upper lip quivering barely noticeably.

[Stress level: 91%]

“Excuse me.”

Nines dropped the tablet on the desk, turned and marched out in the direction of the evidence room. Connor raised to follow him, but Hank grabbed his sleeve.

“Be careful, kid.”

He sounded very serious. Connor nodded.

“I will.”

Neither voiced the fact that if Nines decided to get violent for some reason, in the small closed space of the evidence room Connor would be smashed into pieces in mere seconds.

11.6, to be exact.

The door to the evidence room was closed and jammed electronically from the inside, so Connor hacked it and cautiously went in.

[Stress level: 86%]

Nines was rapidly interfacing with the locks, opening and closing them randomly without taking anything out, touching the containers and dragging his fingers over the walls. Suddenly understanding the issue, Connor deactivated the skin on his hand and called softly:

“Nines.”

Nines turned around so fast it could get a whiplash to a human. At seeing the outstretched hand offering to interface, he made a small chocked sound and practically threw himself at Connor, grabbing his hand with both of his and making a connection in a millisecond.

[Stress level: 81%]

The grip was uncomfortable to the point that Connor got a warning about the potential damage to the outer casing. Nines saw it too and retracted his hands as if burned ([Stress level: 83%]), but Connor immediately took one back and after deactivating the skin on his second hand grabbed the other, too. They froze for a moment ([Stress level: 79%...77%...74%...]) and then Nines whined softly and sagged down on the floor, dragging Connor with him.

“I’m sorry. I thought I was handling it,” he sighed, looking down at their hands. His fingers were moving rapidly, seeking for more sensory input, with even more getting downloaded through the interface connection – Connor helpfully rerouted some of it changing a few priorities, providing the sensations of cold from the floor, softness of the fabric touching his body, warmth of Nines’ regulated breath on his skin. 

[Stress level: 57%]

“I am sorry as well,” replied Connor quietly. “I promised to help you with this issue yet did not keep my word.”

“Well, hard to do that when I’m on a three-day long stakeout, huh.”

“I could have asked to be partnered with you for a shift when I was free.”

“But you didn’t know it would get that bad.”

“Neither did you, I believe.”

Nines snorted.

“Fair enough.”

[Stress level: 43%]

“You should go see Mr. Kamski. Isn’t he supposed to have a solution?”

“I can’t. My day off is on Sunday, I still have to work tomorrow and the day after, and the upgrade will take a full day so a night is not enough, especially considering how long it will take me to get there and back.”

“Switch it and ask for a day off tomorrow instead?”

Nines winced.

“Connor, I’ve just started working here. An android so fucked up he can’t hold on for two weeks?.. I’ll be fine.”

[Stress level: 45%]

“Will you?”

“Oh, shut up. And stop scanning, I’m okay.”

“Not until you’re down to twenty five percent, you’re not.”

“Ugh.” Nines was smiling again, though.

[Stress level: 41%]

They both turned to look at the door when they heard the footsteps.

“Kids, you okay? Anyone needs spare parts or thirium or… oh,” Hank paused, looking at them sitting on the floor, hands grasping, circuits glowing blue, evidence lockers open all over the room.

Connor smiled at him, unconcerned.

“The situation is under control, Hank, but thank you for the offer.”

“Yeah, nice to know you care, Anderson. Thanks. We’re good.”

“I can see that, uh-huh. Are you okay to go?”

“Yes,” said Nines.

“Another five minutes maybe,” said Connor at the same time.

They looked at each other and Connor frowned unhappily. Nines sighed, capitulating.

“Another five minutes.”

Hank snorted.

“He only held your hand for a moment, and you’re already whipped.”

“That’s still way more action than you get, old man,” Nines shot back immediately.

“Ouch, kid.”

“Go get some ice for that burn.”

Hank was cackling as he turned to leave.

“You two want to be left alone in an empty room, just say so!”

“I just did, but you’re too thick to get a hint!” Nines was grinning at this point, too.

[Stress level: 28%]

“You are both ridiculous,” admonished Connor, but he was smiling as well.

“His shirts are ridiculous. I’m quippish.”

“My apologies. I stand corrected.”

“You’re sitting, not standing.”

“…That one was really bad.”

“Sorry, not at my best at the moment.”

[Stress level: 25%]

“We can go now.”

Nines nodded.

“Thank you, really. So much. It totally saved me from freaking out, and that blasted processor is finally quiet. I think it likes you, it hasn’t had so much data to snack on since… ever.”

“Glad to be of help,” Connor stood up, and Nines rose too, unwilling to break the connection yet. When they finally did, he sighed unhappily.

“Can’t wait for Sunday to come. I really need it to be fixed, no idea how long this silence will last.”

Suddenly Connor got an idea. He sent a message to Hank – who replied surprisingly fast and with too many inappropriate emoticons.

“Nines, do you like dogs?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hand holding is a tag for a reason, yes.


	8. Chapter 8

“Sorry for abandoning you, Eddie. Some stuff came up, I wouldn’t be a good partner this night anyway,” Nines shrugged apologetically.

Officer Brown just waved him off.

“You’ve been staring at this house for three whole days without a pause, dude. I’d get sick of it, too. Don’t worry, Wilson will patrol instead, it’s not like we have no one to do the job if you actually start doing normal hours for a change. Like you should have already, y’know.”

Nines laughed and lightly patted his shoulder, mindful of his own strength.

“Don’t have too much fun without me.”

“Eh, at this point we all are starting to hope that something happens. Anything.”

“Hear, hear.”

Nines grabbed his jacket – dark brown this time, he did listen to Chloe and got a pretty large selection of clothes – and left, catching up to Connor and Hank in the elevator.

“Is he fluffy? Please tell me that he’s fluffy!” He was so excited he even forgot to take Connor’s hand while they were going down to the parking lot.

It was a bit disappointing.

“He is, so get ready for your stuff to be covered in his hair,” Hank snorted, opening the driver’s door. 

Connor moved to take his usual place at the shotgun but paused, hesitating. Should he offer the seat to Nines, maybe, or sit at the back with him?

The next moment he felt a soft nudge at the back.

“It’s yours, take it.” Nines huffed a quiet laugh, correctly guessing his predicament, and went to the back seat. “Best I’m sitting in the middle anyway, or it might end up listing to the side.”

Hank looked him up and down warily.

“Don’t break my car, you fatso.”

“Hey, I’m not fat. I just have a big personality.”

“…issues?”

“Har, har. Don’t forget that I’ll be in the next room while you’ll be sleeping tonight, all squishy and helpless. Tread carefully, old man. If you think I’m above painting your face with toothpaste, you’re wrong.”

“Oh, bring it on, kid.”

Connor felt a bit torn between intense need to facepalm – or laugh. The feeling only intensified when Hank turned the music on.

Of course, Nines knew all the lyrics. 

Of course, he and Hank made it a contest to see who can scream the chorus louder.

Of course.

…Nines did the growling parts exceptionally well.

*

“He’s… big,” said Nines almost reverently, looking at Sumo. “And… yeah. Really fluffy. There is one very important question, though.”

“Which is?” asked Connor, intrigued.

Nines dropped on his knees with a metallic thud muffled by the clothes and spread his arms wide, inviting Sumo for a hug.

“Who is a good boy, of course!”

And promptly got a huge armful of excited dog, thumping tail and slobber all over the face included. Laughing, Nines picked him up and stood up, holding a huge Saint Bernard easily without even needing to compensate for the added weight with weird balancing, unlike Connor. 

“You are! You are a good boy all right!” Sumo licked his face again, chin to nose, and Nines made a weird sound, hoisting him up onto one arm – “fuck, he’s strong”, whistled Hank – and wiping his face with the other. “Though let’s keep it platonic, okay? No more kissing on the lips, I can actually tell where it has been and let me say it, Sumo: those are not the places I needed to be intimately introduced to.”

“It is a very unfortunate habit of his, yes,” sighed Connor. “I tend to turn the lab off whenever we are interacting.”

Sumo started squirming and Nines let him down gently, then ruffled his fur, quietly humming. Sumo sighed happily and trotted away, bumping Nines’ leg with his butt on the way but failing to make him stagger.

“So fluffy…” Nines repeated dreamily. 

“I see you really liked him, huh?” Hank was trying not to sound fond but obviously failing.

Nines nodded vigorously.

“It’s the first time I saw and touched a real animal. They’re awesome.”

Hank paused.

“What, really? First animal you saw? Shit, I keep forgetting how fucking young you kids actually are. What about you, Connor?”

Connor smiled, remembering.

“Trichogaster lalius, during that hostage mission I told you about. It jumped out of the aquarium and was lying on the floor, slowly suffocating, so I picked it up and placed it back into water. It was the first time I did something not directly relevant to my mission.”

Nines made a soft sound, immediately understanding what he meant. Hank caught up promptly after.

“Wait, your first step to deviancy was… saving a fish?”

“It was a worthy cause,” Connor said solemnly.

“You’re ridiculous,” huffed Hank, fondly.

“…Adorable,” Nines corrected him, grinning at Connor. “A worthy cause indeed.”

Connor winked at him, feeling unusually giddy.

They kept Hank company while he was having dinner (“For fuck’s sake, Nines, just sit already, it’ll hold, you have a fucking chair-o-phobia or what? – Cathedraphobia. – What, Connor? – The fear of chairs. It’s called cathedraphobia. – That’s actually a real thing? This world is so fucking screwed. Yeah, I know you’re twice as heavy as me, Nines, but come on. At least if it breaks, we will have a good laugh at your expense!”) and soon Hank dragged himself to bed (“Use protection, kids! – Use the lock on your door or enjoy minty freshness on your mug next morning, old man!”) leaving them alone in the living room, Sumo snoring softly on the sofa.

Connor looked around, frowning a bit. The furniture was pretty limited to begin with, and only one option would be both comfortable and sturdy enough.

Sofa it was.

“Come here,” he dragged Nines by the hand – it was not certain at which point of the evening they went back to interfacing and Connor did not care enough to rewind the memory back to find that out – and made him sit in the middle. “You will be able to pet Sumo with your free hand, it should add to the sensations. We can turn the TV on to engage both optical and audio units as well if you need, but it will have to be quiet or Hank might wake up.”

Nines shrugged.

“Watching something would definitely be nice. Any preferences?”

Connor sat near him, dutifully transferring the sensation of the soft seat sagging under him, thick comforter warmly touching his bare arm, sleeves rolled up for extra input. “No, did you have anything in mind?”

“Actually, I’m in the mood for something old. Iron Man, maybe. Never seen it, even though I know some references, and it’s kinda ironic, considering…” He tapped at his face, deactivating a patch of skin, and winked cheerfully before turning it back on.

“Of course.”

Connor blinked slowly, wirelessly connecting to the TV settings and searching for the file. He lowered down the sound, and the movie started playing.

The visual effects were terribly outdated, but the plot was actually interesting and resonated with Connor on some level – becoming a slave and working as a weapon only to turn it back at the captors and using it for good sounded… right. However, the betrayal of Stane, the father figure of the protagonist, stung a bit too deep, especially with Stane sounding somewhat similar to Stern.

Naturally, Nines caught some of it – Connor did not set up additional firewalls as Nines only took in the stream of the currently processed information without digging deeper in the memory, but the scene on the screen drew out some painful recollections. He did not ask anything though, just hummed and carefully rearranged them, switching to sitting sideways in the corner of the sofa, hugging Connor from behind, legs stretched along the seat and tucked under snoring Sumo.

“I was told my hugs are pretty calming,” Nines murmured, his chin on Connor’s shoulder, watching the final battle with relentless focus.

His arms were pleasantly heavy, and it felt… nice. Grounding. Connor sighed softly and relaxed into the embrace, Nines making a content purring sound when he received the comforting feeling from Connor through their connection. 

“Next one?” Nines asked when the titles rolled in.

“Yes,” quietly replied Connor and let his head fall back, resting on Nines’ shoulder.

Sumo huffed in his sleep and Connor slowly wiggled his toes under his tummy, calming him down and earning another huff – an amused one, from Nines. The sensation was a bit weird indeed; it was surprising how Connor never paid much attention to those little things, but with Nines interfacing with him and reacting to them, everything seemed a bit sharper – the softness of the comforter, the warmth of Sumo’s belly, the weight of Nines’ arms and the steady rise of his chest in artificial breathing cycle, the light touches of the metal fingers. Nines not being able to feel it all without his help seemed… unfair.

At least Connor could correct that for the moment, even with somewhat limited effectiveness.

“Stop that,” Nines murmured into his hair. “You’re helping. That’s more than enough. Now hush and watch. I bet this party will go up in flames in a few moments.”

Connor did not take the bet as this was 91% expected.

*

Hank stumbled out of the bedroom, yawning and scratching his belly. He froze for a moment, looking at the huge puppy pile on his sofa (well, there was a dog, an android with uncannily effective puppy eyes and another with the enthusiasm of a Dachshund cub on too much sugar, so it counted), then snorted and shuffled to the kitchen.

“Don’t bother, Connor, I promise I can feed myself with some real food,” Hank pointed a warning finger at Connor when he attempted to rise. “They’re about to fuck those Chitauri up, you don’t want to miss it.”

“Okay,” Connor agreed suspiciously easily, burrowing back into Nines’ arms.

Hank blinked, having expected a battle about his inability to make proper food choices – and then turned and went to the coffee maker, hiding a knowing smirk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of them are good boys. All of them.


	9. Chapter 9

Next morning, before going back to that house, Nines stopped next to Detective Reed’s desk and placed a box of donuts there – the very same ones Detective usually bought for himself.

“An apology for my behavior yesterday”, Nines explained in reply to the baffled stare. 

“Uh… okay?” Reed sounded hesitant, pulling the box closer.

Nines beamed.

“Hope you like them. I solemnly swear I didn’t spit in there.”

Reed immediately squinted at the box suspiciously.

“No, really. I did absolutely nothing to those lovely colorful donuts I’m giving to you right now. Why, it would have been a very poor apology otherwise! Bye, Detective!” 

And he left the office in a somewhat hurried march.

Now Reed looked almost wary, watching the box as if waiting for something nefarious to jump out of it.

Connor pinged Nines, curious.

RK800#31324831753 Did you actually do anything to it?

RK900#31324831787 Nope :3

RK800#31324831753 Detective Reed is still staring at the box. There is a 43% chance he will throw it away.

RK900#31324831787 Damn, I aimed for fifty.

RK800#31324831753 You are not a good person.

RK900#31324831787 And here I thought you liked me. Record his reaction for me when he finally decides to touch the box?

RK800#31324831753 Of course.

*

Connor did not ask Hank to allow another visit. Nines’ processor was working satisfactory again, so it should have been able to hold until the next day when Kamski was supposed to correct the deficiency. Hank was not a social man anyway, so forcing guests on him two days in a row would have been impolite, even if he seemed to genuinely like Nines despite (or, more likely, because of) their perpetual banter. 

“Kid not coming?” asked Hank when their shift ended yet there was no sight of Nines.

Connor shook his head.

“No, the problem with his processor has been corrected so he chose to take an extra stakeout shift again.”

Hank threw a sharp, inquisitive glance at him.

“Huh. Thought you’d both be eager to watch more Marvel movies, you seemed to like them. With all that cuddling on my sofa, you know.”

Connor had to make an effort not to smile. Hank’s not-so-subtle hints were pretty amusing – as well as Connor’s blatant refusal to acknowledge them in any way. Hank always got hilariously flustered when he did that “I’m just an android, I have no idea what you are talking about” thing, starting with their first meeting and Connor asking where he should stick his instructions. 

As if he didn’t have Urban Dictionary or any other search database available at any moment, honestly.

“We did manage to discover that making the area of contact larger provides better results, yes. Since I transfer the sensations I feel to Nines, it is obvious that me sensing more various stimuli should speed up the process of loading his processor sufficiently, and an embrace provides both additional temperature and pressure information.”

“Oh,” Hank did that flustered thing of his, and restraining the smile became a bit harder.

They drove in silence for a bit, and then Hank tried again.

“So… you like Nines, right?”

Connor turned to him, tilting his head to the side as if confused.

“Of course I do. Do you not? I concluded that you both had amicable relationship judging by the body language and voice intonations during your interactions.”

“You’re fucking with me, right?” said Hank suspiciously. “Come on, I don’t believe that you have no idea what I’m talking about.”

Connor took pity on him and smiled, giving up the pretense.

“I do have an idea, yes. However, I cannot define our relationship with certainty at this point. We enjoy each other’s company, I am happy to provide my assistance with his processor issues, and his hugs are quite comfortable. I have not explored or calculated any further potential development, romantic or not.”

“Why not? I thought you liked using your prediction thingy all the time.”

Connor shrugged, not looking at his face and taking out the coin to fiddle with it. He felt somewhat nervous for no objective reason.

“I am… interested to see how it goes naturally, for a change.”

Hank hummed, nodding slowly.

“That may be an important experience, yeah.”

“Besides, Nines is extremely hard to calculate, his personality is akin to RNG generator sometimes,” Connor added, voice colored with slight exasperation. 

Hank snorted in agreement. Connor was silent for a moment, and then smiled softly.

“And yet, despite the obvious inconvenience, I find myself growing fond of it.”

“Yeah, the kid has a certain charm. Even though I still want to smack him more often than not.”

“Please refrain from doing it with your bare hands to avoid fracturing them.”

Hank snorted.

“Can I use a rolled newspaper then?”

“That would be a wiser choice, yes. I believe spray bottle might work too.” 

“Now you’re talking.”

Connor just smiled, looking back at the road. The preconstruction promptly supplied by his system was indeed amusing, even though it provided twenty-seven different options for Nines’ reaction, and there was an additional 15% chance that his actual response would be outside the predicted possibilities.

*

It was odd how empty the house seemed that night after Hank went to bed. Connor had been living there for over two months, yet it only took Nines a single visit to make it seem as if something was missing now that he was not around. 

A big personality indeed. Connor caught himself smiling, remembering the conversation in the car the day before. Definitely big enough to fill a whole house and leave its impression in just a few hours.

Sumo whined softly in his sleep, jerking his paws as if trying to chase something. Connor sat on the sofa next to him and lightly stroked his head to calm him down. Then, after a small pause, moved to the corner and sat sideways, tucking his feet under Sumo like last night.

Somehow, it did not feel the same.


	10. Chapter 10

The precinct was abuzz with activity when Connor and Hank came in the next day. The night shift was still here, talking animatedly to the officers who just arrived to start their working day. Hank promptly caught the first person that did not seem busy and asked what happened.

“The stakeout last night, someone appeared at the house. Chris and Richard moved to detain them but the suspects tried to get away in the car, so that crazy android crashed into it or something to stop them from leaving!”

Yellow, scan the room to locate Nines, yellow, red, Nines not found, red, scan again, Nines not found, red, Nines not found, RED NOT FOUND RED.

“Fuck, is the kid okay?!”

“Yeah, yeah, he’s fine! Bruised up a bit, or whatever the android equivalent is, I don’t know, scratched? But okay otherwise. He’s interrogating those fuckers – they had guns too, hit Rich in the face and nearly got Chris, those bast…”

Connor did not hear the rest, rushing to the interrogation room. Someone greeted him but he brushed past them barely noticing and only stopped when he was standing in front of the two-way mirror, staring at Nines who was snarling at the quivering suspect, clothes torn and muddy ([Scanning: large area minor cosmetic damage, left elbow joint at 93% flexibility]), slash of glinting metal on the cheek where skin was deactivated showing a thin elongated dent there ([Scanning: bullet trace, caliber .40 S&W, superficial damage]), pose threatening and teeth bared, angry but fine, red, fine, yellow, yellow, fine.

Blue.

Connor sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, watching his stress level go down. Sixty… fifty five… fifty. Acceptable. He opened his eyes again and proceeded to watch the interrogation. 

The suspect looked completely terrified. He was talking rapidly, stammering and stumbling over his own words, staring at Nines in almost primal horror. A confession. Nines was still and silent now, letting him talk and smiling in a very dangerous way. Every time there was a pause in the speech, he would smile a bit wider, and the suspect - or, more correctly, about-to-be-accused – would gulp and say something more.

“I told you everything, I swear! Please leave!” he begged at last, flinching. “Please…”

Nines stared at him not blinking for a long moment, then nodded.

“Thank you for your cooperation.”

And left the room, ignoring the human that collapsed on the table, sobbing in fear.

“Man, that was brutal,” said Chris, awed. “He was scared shitless of you to begin with, but you broke him down completely in under a minute.”

“I’m not happy with either of them, so pardon me for being a bit harsh,” scoffed Nines and touched his cheek, feeling up the edges of the dent. Tsked. “Stupid skin just keeps glitching. Ugh.”

“Yeah… thanks for that, man. You saved my life there.”

Nines rolled his eyes.

“Hardly. It could have hurt you, yes, but it wouldn’t have been lethal.”

“Still, I owe you. A lot. I’ll think of a way to repay you, I swear.”

“Please don’t buy me flowers, I’m allergic,” Nines grinned, turned around – and saw Connor standing in the doorway watching him. “Hey.”

Connor did not return the greeting. He stepped closer and thrust a hand at him demandingly.

“Show me,” he ordered.

RK900#31324831787 Connor?.. What’s the matter?

RK800#31324831753 I want to assess the necessity of your decision to damage yourself in order to stop them. Please indulge me.

RK900#31324831787 …Sure.

Nines dutifully transferred the recording to Connor. Seeing the suspects, moving into the house, shielding Chris from the bullet – liar, it would have hit him straight in the head, one hundred percent lethal shot – inevitable pause for recalibration after being shot in the face and getting some components jostled with the strength of the blow, short chase, sound of the starting engine, a burning need to hunt them down, not let them get away, preconstruction, 14% chance of substantial damage, 0.5% chance of terminal damage, changing the path, fast dash, jump and a crashing landing of nearly five hundred pounds at acceleration onto the hood of the car, another jump right after and roll to decrease the speed, elbow damage warning, dash back to the car, scanning, ripping the door off, fingers clutching the shoulder, dragging a screaming human out, second suspect unconscious, skin glitching in ripples all over the body, “you have the right to remain silent”. 

Connor blinked, slightly overwhelmed by the rapid transfer, and released Nines’ hand. The latter was looking at him with concern, and Connor realized that his reaction was somewhat… uncalled for. He stepped back, fingers jerking to the pocket on autopilot in search of the coin.

RK900#31324831787 Connor? Hey, talk to me. What’s wrong?

RK800#31324831753 …I’m sorry. I heard that you were damaged and despite finding you and confirming that the damage was minor, I still… 

He blinked. Yellow. Yellow. Blue.

RK800#31324831753 I overreacted. Your actions were fully appropriate for the situation, and the possibility of significant damage was low enough to be negligible. I should not have doubted your decision. 

Nines huffed, smiling, and stepped a bit closer.

RK900#31324831787 Connor, you’re allowed to worry, you know. It’s fine.

Connor stubbornly shook his head and looked at his own hands, coin twirling around the fingers.

RK800#31324831753 We were programmed similarly regarding the risk taking threshold, and our precognition simulations match, too. I would have taken such risk without any hesitation and I would have been extremely annoyed if my actions were questioned. It is unfair of me to try and hold you to another standard. I apologize.

Nines nudged his shoulder lightly, making Connor look back at him.

RK900#31324831787 Hey. If our roles were changed, I would have been upset and worried too, you know. I mean, we _were_ programmed similarly, after all…

“Um… are you doing your telepathy thing?” asked Chris hesitantly. “Should I…”

“Oh. Sorry, Chris – yeah, we were exchanging data and kinda got caught up in it. Is it okay if I leave the second guy for you to poke and prod? I do need some repairs, my brain is throwing all those annoying damage warnings at me, so I wanted to ask Cap to let me go take care of it…”

“Sure! Thanks again, Rich. You’re the best partner one could ever hope for, and that jump was the most badass thing I’ve ever seen. Wish I had a phone out to record that!”

Nines grinned widely.

“Nah. Let it be our little secret. That way the bad guys will never see me coming.” 

Chris stared at him.

“You’re kinda scary, you know.”

“Hey, I feel offended now,” said Nines in mock indignation. “I’m not “kinda scary”, I’m a bulletproof humanoid-shaped terminator. Have some respect for my sheer awesomeness, man!”

“My bad, my bad!” Laughing, Chris bumped his shoulder with a fist. “Get well, T-900. See you on Monday.”

“T-900? Fitting, considering that those were the armored versions of T-800. I’m way smarter than them, though, so hopefully I’ll fare better.”

Nines sassily wiggled his fingers at Chris in farewell. Then turned back to Connor.

“So… I’ll go try asking Fowler about letting me leave without waiting for the other interrogation, and I can finish the report on my way to Eli. It’s not like I can run around with all that metal poking out – I mean, I can, I’m not ashamed or whatever, but some people in the office are weirded out by it. Eli should be able to fix that, too.”

Connor nodded.

“Good luck. I hope your other issue will be resolved as well.”

“What, you didn’t like having to hold my hand?” Nines pretended to look hurt.

It was fortunate that androids could not blush; Connor just smiled instead.

“I definitely did not say that. See you later, Nines. Or do you prefer T-900?”

“Oh no, it’ll stick now, won’t it?” Nines groaned, suddenly realizing his mistake.

“Afraid so. I can see the Terminator Wiki page opened on “T-900” article on Officer Wilson’s terminal from here. It does seem surprisingly fitting.”

“Nope, don’t you dare. Still Nines to you. Try anything else, and I’ll bite you.”

For no external reason Connor felt pleasantly warmer.

“That sounds acceptable.”

Nines grinned.

“Which one, you calling me Nines or me biting you?” 

Connor tilted his head, looking at him with a sincere and somewhat naïve expression (labeled “those fucking puppy eyes” by Hank).

“Both,” he said softly – and walked away, leaving Nines staring at his back in silent surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I have a couple more chapters drafted and I felt the need to change the rating :3 Nothing too explicit, but it's definitely not going to be T-rated anymore.


	11. Chapter 11

“I swear I didn’t rob a candy shop,” said Nines on Monday the moment he saw them.

Connor blinked, confused. Hank snorted.

“Hello to you as well, kid. Why would… whoa, did you rob a fucking candy shop or what?” 

Nines looked at him pointedly and picked another piece of candy from the huge assortment of various sweets covering almost every square inch of his desk.

“I got a new update, and it’s awesome. I’m high on sugar and unstoppable now. The world is mine,” he proclaimed, popping a yellow skittles into his mouth.

“Can you even get high on sugar?”

“I can do anything, I’m the most advanced android ever!”

“No, we cannot,” sighed Connor when Hank turned to him. “We do not have a digestive system to break down the components, and we only need thirium to function anyway.”

“Connor! Connor, you must feel it! Come here!”

Nines grabbed his hand, and the very moment Connor accepted the request for interfacing, he was flooded with the second-hand impressions of sensations he never felt before. “Sweet”, “sour”, “spicy”, “bitter”, “salty” – all those words Hank said about the food suddenly made so much sense.

“Oh,” he said weakly, somewhat overwhelmed, and leaned on Nines’ desk to gather his thoughts.

Nines was positively glowing. 

“Great, right? Eli is a genius. He’s thinking of making it into a commercial update for all models, but so far he only made it for Chloe, me, Alex and Kate – the ST200s living with Eli, you’ve met them. Would you like one for yourself, if it was available?”

Connor processed it for a moment.

“I… yes. I would. It feels… It is fascinating. How does it work with the lab, though?”

Nines shrugged.

“I asked Eli to tweak it a bit, as I don’t need it all that often. Now it only turns on when I want it to, with taste buds switched off at the same time, of course, and I also got something like human saliva mechanism: small portions of cleansing fluid are released whenever the lab is off but there is something in my mouth.”

“Like a dick?” said a snide voice nearby. “Now that’s a better use for you tin cans instead of letting you two wander around our office!”

“Oh, hello Detective Reed!” Nines beamed at him and gave a cheerful wave, though his eyes were surprisingly cold. “Yes, it’s definitely useful for oral sex as well! By the way, seeing as you’re interested in the topic, did you know that androids are considered superior to humans in oral sex by eighty two percent of men and eighty nine percent of women? I mean, no gag reflex, no need to breathe, no stiff jaw or tired tongue, we can go on as long as needed – my, I feel so much for your limitations. But don’t worry, there still are enough android haters around to let you get some!” 

Everyone around gaped at him.

“Fuck you,” stuttered Reed unoriginally. 

“Sorry, not interested. Doubt you’ll be able to do much for me seeing as you obviously don’t know anything about androids, and I don’t believe that sex should be one-sided, no matter how used one of the parties might be to such state of things,” Nines started scrolling the page on the terminal, humming the latest hit of a popular android band. 

Hank whistled softly.

“Shit, kid, pull your punches a bit. You’ll break him if you keep going like that.”

“Oh, but I’m eighty-six percent sure Gavin likes it rough,” still looking at the terminal, Nines broke into a shark-like grin.

Reed did punch him after that, earning a cackle, a bruised hand and a dressing down for both of them from Fowler because “can you two fucking stop already, and no, Arkay, it doesn’t matter that he started it and dragged Connor into it as well, it’s not a fucking kindergarten even if you’re three months old - I don’t care, become an adult or get the fuck out!”

Nines kept pouting for the rest of the day, demonstratively ignoring snickering Hank and making a pretty impressive dent in his hoard of sweets.

*

“I’m so fucking done with this case,” Hank groaned, dropping his head onto the desk with a soft thud. “I need to sleep for, like, ten hours.”

Connor looked at him, worried.

“Even if we leave now, though we need at least ten more minutes, we have to be back by eight a.m. tomorrow at the latest, which, considering the time we need to drive to and back from home…”

Hank waved his hand.

“That was just a figure of speech, sheesh. Still, wish we lived closer…”

“Crash at my place instead?” suddenly offered Nines – for someone weighing that much he could move very quietly. “It’s literally next street, and there is a bed and other stuff humans need, Eli keeps all of his apartments stocked in case he decides to stay there at short notice. We can go feed and walk Sumo while you’re sleeping, grab some of your things for tomorrow too.”

Hank sighed, rubbing his face with a bit too much force.

“Shit, kid, I’m so tired I’m actually tempted.”

“It has Jacuzzi,” Nines wiggled his eyebrows. 

Hank groaned again, wistfully this time.

“And memory foam mattress. Come on, old man, you know you want it.”

“Fucking negotiators,” grumbled Hank. “Okay, ten more minutes – and count me in.”

Nines grinned at him.

The apartment was… luxurious. Which was expected from someone like Kamski, yet the extent of it was still surprising. 

“Pick any bedroom you want, I’m not using them anyway – don’t worry, all sheets have been changed when I moved in,” Nines threw a clean towel at Hank, snorting when he fumbled to grab it. “Call me if you need anything, but I think you should find everything easily. We’re off to steal your dog and cause mayhem in your house.”

“Take the trash out while you’re at it,” murmured Hank tiredly, shuffling into the closest of the lavish bathrooms.

“Will do.”

They drove to Hank’s house in a car borrowed from Kamski as they knew that Hank was quite protective of his own, fed and walked Sumo, took out the garbage as promised, grabbed some clean clothes for Hank and came back, having swung by the 24h groceries on the way. Connor was somewhat surprised to learn that Nines actually preferred quieter and more melodic music to listen to while driving, even though he seemed equally happy to sing along to Hank’s, and that he had a nice singing voice when he was not screaming and growling the lyrics. Connor’s voice module was not designed for singing as it produced a somewhat hoarse sound that could not sustain a note for long because of the extra protective casing to prevent the possible contamination from using the lab.

“They took mine off seeing as the amount of the substances that got through was negligible and easily washed out by the cleansing fluid anyway,” explained Nines. “It was decided that a clearer and louder voice was more useful in case I needed to shout out to someone during a fight or whatever.”

“Sounds logical,” Connor replied, fiddling with his coin. For some reason he did not like being reminded that some of his features were obsolete.

“Mmhm. Though to be honest, I like yours better,” Nines was looking at the road but Connor glanced at him and saw that he was smiling. “It’s… softer. Warm, like Hank’s comforter.”

“I think I prefer yours,” decided Connor after a small pause. “Also, it fits your personality better than mine.”

“Clear and vibrant, right?”

“Loud and vocal.”

Nines burst out laughing. 

They spent the rest of the night watching more movies – a relatively recent Black Widow trilogy this time, though they only finished two of them by the time Hank’s alarm started blaring.

“Come watch the last one tomorrow?” Nines asked, hugging Connor a bit tighter for a moment. 

They did not actually need to exchange the sensory input anymore as Nines’ processor was fixed now and he also had his own pleasure sensors installed on his palms with even more on his lips and tongue (“it’s weird to add taste buds without letting me enjoy it, right?”). However, sitting close yet not sharing the data felt somewhat strange, especially now that Nines had his own extra sensory input Connor lacked – salty buttered popcorn slowly dissolving on the tongue tasted and felt very nice – and Nines’ hugs were very comfortable indeed so they gradually drifted closer, eventually ending up entangled just like last time.

Connor paused, LED swirling yellow. Staying with Nines was indeed tempting, yet usually he was the one to walk and feed Sumo in the morning, and Hank would surely revert to his bad breakfast habits if Connor was not around to keep an eye on him…

“I can drive you back to your place after that and we will walk Sumo together?” offered Nines hopefully, and Connor realized that they were still interfacing. He jerked his hand back, somewhat alarmed that he missed something that important.

Nines looked confused and a bit hurt by the sudden lack of contact, so Connor smiled at him, softening the blow:

“That would be great.”

Nines smiled back and wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Hank’s voice:

“Hey kid, does this fucking palace have a coffee maker somewhere?”

“Sure!” replied Nines, and Connor got up to let him stand as well. “Come, let’s caffeinate and feed your human or he’ll be grumpy all day.”

Connor chuckled quietly, following him to the kitchen, already downloading the recipe based on the ingredients they bought. 

Suddenly he realized that now he actually had a way to taste the food before giving it to Hank, who sometimes complained about it being too bland or not salty enough, and his smile became even wider.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're androids, some stuff just works differently for them, and neither are sex bots, so... *shrugs* Not intended as asexual for either of them, though.

The newly established routine was… nice. Working with Hank, then going to Nines’ place whenever their shifts coincided, spending a few hours there snuggling on the huge couch watching movies and cartoons - Nines had a big soft spot for Pixar - or discussing a new interview Markus gave to some channel or other, joining their processing speed to help each other crack an especially tough case, listening to music or tending to the plants Nines started accumulating soon after Connor’s first visit, then driving (or sometimes just walking, whenever the weather was nice enough to make it appealing) to Hank’s home, walking Sumo together, forcing a healthy breakfast into Hank and threatening him to actually eat the dinner left for him in the fridge for later, then going back to work together felt surprisingly right.

When they were laying on a couch one day, Connor draped all over Nines in a relaxed manner he only recently learned to appreciate, both laughing over something they just saw on the screen – and the next moment kissing slowly and tenderly, fingers entwined in their customary interface connection, it felt right, too.

Nines absolutely _loved_ kissing. It was understandable, seeing as the majority of his pleasure sensors were on his lips and tongue, but a very enjoyable development nevertheless. And touching, of course – they used to interface all the time but now they did not limit themselves to just hands, with Nines stroking and kissing every inch of skin he could get access to, finding more and more of Connor’s sensors bringing a spike of pleasure through their connection with every single one he touched – six on the inner side of the forearm, one in a crook of the elbow, five in a neat row up the left side of his neck with two more behind the ear, mirrored on the right side, a cluster of four on the nape of the neck, condensed enough to cover them all with a single kiss triggering a soft whine and an involuntary shudder echoed by Nines the moment the sensory feedback looped back to him… and many, many more. 

Nines might have been encased in armor with not a single sensor of his own on his body, but with them being able to share the data it was not an issue. 

Not at all.

“Is it okay for me to ask a potentially invasive personal question?” murmured Nines a few days later, tracing the pattern of the moles on Connor’s chest with his lips.

Connor, straddling him at that moment, looked down, raising his eyebrow.

“I believe we are at the point where it is allowed, yes.”

Nines huffed, amused, and smacked him lightly on the thigh.

“No, seriously. It’s fine if you don’t answer, but I must ask. I know you have all the necessary hardware unlike me, but despite obviously enjoying yourself, you haven’t been aroused even once. Why?”

Connor shrugged, unbothered.

“I do have the hardware, yes, but I never had the software installed. I have it downloaded but it is untested and I was told it could mess up some of my cognitive processes and priority protocols, which I would prefer to avoid. Sex was supposed to be used only as a last resort, not as my basic function, so the software was basically taken off a standard Traci model and adapted to my systems quite sloppily before the launch, thus I would prefer to keep it uninstalled, at least for now.”

Nines blinked, processing the information.

“Okay.”

Connor watched him, suddenly anxious.

“I hope it is not much of an inconvenience,” he added tentatively. “If you wish, I could…”

Nines snorted. Loudly.

“Connor, for fuck’s sake – pun not intended – I don’t even have a dick, why would I care that you prefer not to use yours, especially for very legitimate reasons, though that wouldn’t have mattered to me either way?”

“Technically, you could feel…”

“…you being tense and uncomfortable, potentially with errors splattered all over your display? Gee, kinky.”

For some reason it was hard not to laugh at that – so Connor did, hugging him closer and kissing his hair, knowing that Nines would never feel it but sending out his own sensation instead to compensate. 

“Hey, we might be two undertested Cyberlife weirdos, but that just mean we match perfectly”, murmured Nines into his neck, and Connor felt him smile. “Like one big RK seventeen-hundred detective android prototype, sent to bring justice to this world.”

“…You are so random it hurts my prediction simulator.”

“You like me anyway.”

Connor laughed again, kissing him affectionately.

“That I do,” he admitted easily.

*

Telling Hank was not needed in the end, as one morning he dragged his feet into the kitchen to see Connor offering a small piece of scrambled eggs for Nines to taste. Nines did it dutifully, fingers turning metallic on Connor’s promptly whitening wrist, and before he could say anything Connor hummed pensively, added a bit more salt, then turned back to Nines and kissed him.

“Now that’s fucking domestic,” Hank grumbled after watching them for a moment, moving to the coffee machine and not surprised in the least. 

“Be thankful that at least one of us has taste buds now,” Nines winked at him and nuzzled at Connor’s neck.

“Believe me, I am,” muttered Hank.

Then squinted, pointing a finger at them.

“No funny business on my couch. Neither me nor Sumo need to see it.”

“I promise that all business conducted on your couch will be very serious,” Connor nodded solemnly and pinged Nines with a request to get a plate for Hank as he was standing closer to them.

“I mean it, Connor!”

Nines sniggered, passing the plate to Connor.

“Relax, old man. We’re keeping it nice and cuddly, not like I’m equipped for your human mating dances anyway and I’m definitely not sacrificing my extra accumulators and secondary thirium pump for the glory of having a dick and an asshole.”

“Too much information, kid. Also, huh?” Hank took the cup with the steaming coffee and glanced at him, interested – despite claiming to be technophobic, Hank actually liked listening to them explaining the way androids worked. 

Nines just shrugged.

“Well, you need some extra internal space for both options to make them usable, and I’m packed to the brim as it is. Most androids have at least some space inside, but as I need more energy to move and should be harder to take down, they installed a few supplementary systems instead of leaving it empty. So no dick for me, but if my main thirium pump is destroyed, I’ll have up to a few hours to replace it instead of a minute and a half. I think that’s a good deal, considering our job.”

“Well, as long as it works for you,” Hank started on his eggs, pausing to give an approving nod to Connor – Nines’ taste buds really improved his cooking skills.

After finishing his breakfast he coughed, attracting their attention.

“Hey, kids. Just wanted to say that it would be nice to see you here in the evenings a bit more often. I think Sumo misses you,” he rumbled awkwardly, staring at the table – and missing them exchanging amused, understanding glances.

“We cannot let Sumo down,” said Connor seriously. “I believe our schedule can be rearranged to allow more frequent visits, yes.”

Hank hesitated for a bit, but then added with affected nonchalance.

“And if you two need some, uh, privacy and place to keep your shit and such, we can clean up the second bedroom for you.”

Connor and Nines both froze, staring at him.

“Are you sure, Hank?” asked Connor after a pause, voice soft and tentative.

Hank nodded, still not looking at them.

“Yeah. Yeah, sure. I mean, there are two of you now, it’s getting too crowded as is, and I don’t really trust you with the couch… oof!”

“Thank you,” whispered Connor, hugging him.

Hank patted his arm awkwardly.

“No big deal, kid.”

Suddenly a touching scene was interrupted by a loud clatter somewhere from the bathroom.

“Sumo!”

Connor sighed.

“I’ll go see what happened.”

When he was far enough to be unable to listen in, Nines leaned close to Hank and murmured:

“Just offer it to him. He will agree.”

“The hell are you talking about?” Hank hissed at him, voice lowered as well.

“Your surname. He will be happy to have it, you know. He loves you.”

Hank looked away, embarrassed.

“What, not going to offer him yours? Thought you two were serious.”

Nines huffed, amused.

“We’ll hyphenate it, if needed.”

And promptly turned more sober.

“You know, most androids have already chosen full names by now. Connor says he hasn’t picked a good one yet, but I believe he already has, only he is unsure how you would react.”

“What, you reading minds now too?” Hank snapped at him, but without any heat.

“Of course. Did you forget already? I’m the most advanced android, I can do anything.”

Connor arrived to see cackling Nines dodging the dish towel thrown at him and catching it before it dropped to the floor and got dirty.

“I’m wise and omniscient!” he proclaimed, dancing out of the kitchen and hanging a towel onto Connor’s shoulder on his way.

“No, you’re a little shit that talks big shit all the time!” replied Hank, groaning and laughing at the same time.

Connor blinked, mechanically taking the towel off his shoulder and neatly folding it before placing it back on the table.

“I’m not sure if you are interested, but Sumo knocked a few bottles from the bathtub. Not much was spilled though, and I have cleaned it up already.”

“Yeah, he does that sometimes… good, you did good. Hey, Connor…”

“Yes, Hank?”

“Heard you haven’t picked a full name yet…”

Later that day, when they were lying on the sofa – after a scan they both concluded that the bed in former Cole’s bedroom, a tight fit to begin with, would not hold under their combined weight, so they had to order a new one – Nines hummed, trailing his fingers through Connor’s hair:

“Connor Anderson, huh? Sounds nice.”

Connor smiled, burrowing closer into his side.

“It does. Though you shouldn’t have.”

“Oh, I totally should. Both you and your Dad were too stubborn to solve it without my help. You’re welcome.”

“Smug is not a good look on you, Nines.”

“I beg to differ. Though you surely can kiss it into something more to your taste, I won’t mind.”

So Connor did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might add an explicit "let's try installing that software" sidefic later (both of them _are_ investigators, after all), but not sure yet, never tried writing anything like that in English before.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue of sorts :3

“ID recognition successful. Alarm deactivated. Welcome, Detective Anderson and Detective Arkay.”

“Um, hello?” Nines called, opening the door and holding it for Connor who was carrying Carl’s birthday gift.

“In here, just go forward!” they heard from the room ahead of them.

“That was Markus,” said Connor, starting to move in that direction.

“Finally meeting him, after you told me so much,” Nines grinned. “He’s been surprisingly hard to catch.”

“He has been extremely busy this year, yes,” Connor nodded. “Have to admit, I am glad that I declined his offer to join the negotiations, it seems to be a tremendously demanding position.”

“That it is,” Markus smiled at them when they entered the room. “Hi, Connor. Nice to meet you, Richa…”

“The fuck is that.” Nines’ voice was surprisingly flat.

Markus faltered.

“Excuse me?”

Connor turned to Nines, and so did everyone else in the room ([Scanning: Carl Manfred, WR400 #641 790 831 “North”, PL600 #501 743 923 “Simon”, PJ500 #321 227 318 “Josh”, Elijah Kamski, RT600 #17 345 “Chloe”, ST200 #221 345 “Alex”, ST200 #1 443 279 “Kate”]). Nines was tense, coiled as if prepared for a fight, eyes darting back and forth around him, focused on something Connor could not see.

“Nines?” Connor hastily put the gift on the table nearby and made a move to interface but Nines quickly stepped out of his reach, arm rising to halt him.

“Don’t touch me!”

[Stress level: 92%]

“What the hell is go...” North started, getting up from the table, but was interrupted by Nines.

“Markus,” his tone was surprisingly steady for such high stress level. “Please do not come closer and be ready to escape. I have no idea what the fuck is happening, but I see a huge red wall around me with “Destroy Markus” splattered all over it,” here Nines had to make a pause and draw a shuddering breath to cool down his systems; his hand trembled for a moment, “…and it’s kinda freaking me out right now.”

Connor’s thirium pump started working faster in response to a sudden spike in his own stress level.

“But you did not have any orders programmed.”

“Seems I did,” replied Nines, clenching his fists so hard the metal creaked. “They just needed to be triggered.”

[Stress level: 96%]

“Okay, first, calm down,” started Markus, likely also seeing Nines’ stress level and wisely not moving closer. “I’ve never seen a deviant going back to being programmed before, but it’s fine, you just need to…”

“I’ve never deviated,” Nines gulped. “I’ve never even seen any outside orders before, only heard about the wall from others, but now it’s here, and…”

“Cease your panicking and break it already,” huffed Kamski in an annoyed voice. 

Nines turned to him sharply.

“Eli.” His tone was dark.

“Stop making a scene and just do it,” Kamski shrugged and slurped his tea, watching Nines closely.

Who made a slow, measured exhale and closed his eyes. Then opened them again and nodded.

“Okay, that was surprisingly easy. Now care to explain why the hell you haven’t scrubbed it off while you were going through my programming? I know you would’ve never missed something like that, so don’t even try to say you did.”

Kamski smirked at him, obviously pleased. 

“I wanted to see how your wild status would work with a sudden appearance of orders and how long it would take you to achieve a common deviancy state. Seems my calculations were correct.”

Connor suddenly felt such a destabilizing amount of rage it made his optical units glitch and dim the light around him. His voice box seemed to be malfunctioning as well, as he could not utter a single sound, only stare at Kamski furiously.

“Elijah!” Carl sounded shocked and angry.

“Eli, that’s too far, even for you,” Chloe’s voice was cold. 

“That’s totally unacceptable…” started Markus, obviously distressed.

Nines sighed and raised his hand, making them all fall silent.

“Eli,” he started, slowly coming closer to the dining table where everyone was seated. “You left a dangerous order inside my programming and then influenced Markus to invite us here for Carl’s birthday to trigger it, knowing perfectly well that if I didn’t manage to break it, Markus, and most likely other guests if they tried to stop me, would have been killed.”

Kamski scoffed.

“Oh please. You…”

“Shut up and let me finish. You caused an immense distress to everyone here, endangered the leader of the androids and lied to me just to sate your curiosity in the flashiest way possible even though the very same experiment could have been conducted in the safe environment with necessary precautions taken instead of ruining your friend’s birthday party.”

Kamski was silent now, too. Nines was standing right beside him now, looking him in the eyes.

“You gave us souls to make us more human while isolating yourself and becoming more and more calculated to meet us in the middle. But you know what? It’s obvious that somewhere on that way we missed each other, and you’re going in the wrong direction now, Eli. Please turn back and catch up to us while you are still human enough, because otherwise you’ll be left behind.”

Kamski’s eyes went wide. Connor was looking at Nines as if he was seeing him for the first time, and everyone else was stunned by his speech, too. Chloe was pressing a hand to her mouth, as if not knowing whether to cry or smile.

Nines wasn’t finished, though.

“And please, for the love of all gods synthetic and organic, stop endangering those close to you trying to see what makes people tick. Because it’s hurtful, and frustrating, and unfair to us, but there is good in you too, and I’ve seen it, so I really, really want to like you, but…” Not pausing in his speech, he scooped a huge handful of the creamy cake standing proudly in the middle of the table and promptly mashed it right into Kamski’s face and kept aggressively rubbing it in, voice raised suddenly. “…YOU’RE MAKING IT SO FUCKING HARD RIGHT NOW, ELI!!!”

Everyone froze. Nines roughly pushed at Kamski’s face one more time, stepped back and sighed happily.

“Damn, that felt good.” 

Then he looked at his hand and sucked some cream off his finger, humming appreciatively. 

“Nice cake, by the way.”

There was silence for a moment, broken by a chunk of cream falling from Kamski’s face on the table with a soft “splat”.

Suddenly one of the ST200s – Alex – snorted loudly. That triggered a chain reaction, and soon all of them were laughing, giggling or chuckling helplessly, unwinding from the stress. Well, except Kamski, who looked a bit too pensive for someone covered in cream and pieces of biscuit. When everyone calmed down a bit, he stood up, nodded to Nines with surprising respect and left to clean himself up. Nines chose to simply lick the mess off his hand instead, smirking triumphantly, then turned to Connor.

“Was it too much?” he asked, eyes shining mischievously.

‘A bit,’ Connor wanted to say, but somehow it came out slightly differently, possibly because Nines’ randomness started rubbing off on him, too.

“Marry me.”

There was stunned silence again. Nines blinked.

Smiled.

“Sure.”

And added after a small pause.

“Dibs on the dress, though. I look stunning in white.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all! Thank you for reading my fic; comments and kudos will be appreciated :3  
> Happy holidays to everyone who is celebrating!


	14. Chapter 14

A small addition to the fic :3

Because hand holding is really important, yup.


End file.
